CREATING A CULTURE FOR LEARNING.

"Autodesk had no management philosophy," says Bartz, who joined the company in 1992. "We had done what is normal for a fast-growing high-tech company -- just promote people." To succeed in the future, she believed, the company's managers would need a more coherent approach.

Change is relentless, and learning is a basic requirement for technicians and programmers in the high-tech field. But when Carol Bartz came to Autodesk, the San Rafael, Calif., maker of design and imaging systems, she brought with her a more expansive view of learning -- one that encompassed management as well as technical skills.

As a result, Autodesk established formal programs focusing on leadership and management development to complement its technical and product learning. Development courses are open to employees across the company, and in the past six years more than 5,000 people have participated -- including Bartz and her executive staff. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander," she says. "I can't tell people, 'You should learn, but I am so wise I don't have to.'"

Not surprisingly, Web-based e-learning, including remote learning and online seminars, is "becoming a bigger and bigger portion of the training that we do," says Jan Becker, Autodesk's senior vice president of human resources. The company gives employees access to Web courses from a number of outside vendors. "It's almost like a university online," she says. "Employees can log on and not only see all of our own offerings, but also all those other programs."

As powerful as it is, though, e-learning "doesn't always take the place of a good interchange, if you will, in some more conceptual learning about management models and that sort of thing," says Bartz. "So there's a place for e-learning, which I think is more fact-based and information-based, and a place for human interaction."

Autodesk uses a blend of approaches, relying more on the Web for technical and product training, and more on experiential and group learning for leadership programs.

Beyond its formal efforts, Autodesk focuses on creating the right culture for learning. "You need to set a climate that makes learning OK and encourages it," says Becker. Among other things, she explains, that means making sure that people throughout the organization understand that it is all right to take risks, and even to fail, as long as they learn from their mistakes. And it also means ensuring that there is "some fundamental acceptance that it is OK for people not to know everything" -- an attitude that is essential to learning.

Effective learning requires effort and change, but it's worth it. "Take the time and spend the money, and you'll be well rewarded," says Bartz. "It's easy to say, 'Oh, we're all too busy and we've got deadlines and whatever.' People really need to be refreshed, and it can be a great reward for the company."